Sunday, August 27, 2006

No Compulsion In Islam (As Long As You Don't Mind Being Beheaded)

The two Fox News journalists who were recently kidnapped, have been released by their Muslim captors :

This video image shows the two Fox News journalists, cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, 2nd right, of New Zealand and correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, left, of the U.S., after they were released from captivity in the Gaza Strip, Sunday Aug. 27 2006. The day had begun with promises by senior Palestinian officials that Wiig and Centanni would be released in coming hours. The kidnappers claimed both men had converted to Islam.

And to secure their release all they had to do was convert to the religion O' terror :

Fox correspondent Steve Centanni speaks in this video frame grab released on August 27, 2006.

GAZA (Reuters) - Two kidnapped journalists for the American Fox News Channel appeared on a new videotape released by their captors on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, saying they had converted to Islam.

Palestinian Interior Minister Saeed Seyam said efforts were under way to secure the release of Fox correspondent Steve Centanni, a 60-year-old American, and New Zealand-born cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, within hours.

Both journalists appeared to be in good health in the new video. They were seized on August 14 by a previously unknown group called the Holy Jihad Brigades.

The two men were shown separately sitting cross-legged, reading statements announcing that they had converted to Islam. At times in the video they were wearing long Muslim robes.

"I changed my name to Khaled. I have embraced Islam and say the word Allah," Centanni said.

Wiig called on leaders of the West to stop "hiding behind the 'I don't negotiate with terrorists' myth".

Interior Minister Seyam of the governing militant movement Hamas expressed optimism the ordeal for the two reporters would soon be over.

"Efforts are under way with several parties to secure their release within the coming hours," he told Reuters.

The Holy Jihad Brigades claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the kidnapping and had warned the United States to free Muslim prisoners to prevent the captives facing unspecified consequences. The deadline expired on Saturday.

The United States has said it will not make "concessions to terrorists".

A separate statement from the captors said: "They chose Islam and that is a gift that God gives those whom he chooses."

A videotape released on Wednesday showed the two men, dressed in tracksuits, sitting on a blanket in front of a black background. They appeared fairly relaxed and in good health. Both said that they were fine and being treated well.

The kidnapping is the longest-lasting abduction of foreigners in the Palestinian coastal strip in more than a year.

The Hamas-led government has called for the men to be freed while several prominent militant groups in Gaza have denied involvement and also said the men should be freed.

Previous kidnappings of foreigners have usually ended after a few hours, or at most a few days, of captivity.Link...

Saturday, August 26, 2006

El Salvador To Move Embassy From Jerusalem

I remember a year or so ago, I was so proud that even though all the major countries didn't have their embassies in Jerusalem (in order to appease the Islamic world), there were a couple of small countries that had the balls to put their embassies in Israel's true capital. Now it seems like all that's gonna change :

El Salvador will move its embassy in Israel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday, in a move bound to upset Israel and please Arab nations.

El Salvador would have been the only country in the world left with an embassy in Jerusalem after neighboring Costa Rica announced on August 16 it would pull its diplomatic mission out of the city.

A US ally which has a small contingent of troops in Iraq, El Salvador is governed by conservative President Tony Saca, who is of Palestinian Christian descent.

"Considering the current situation in the Middle East, El Salvador has decided to move its diplomatic representation in the state of Israel," The ministry said in a statement.

Israel regards East Jerusalem as part of its "undivided and eternal capital." It captured the eastern part of Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally.

The 200,000 Arab residents of East Jerusalem are caught between Israel and an emerging Palestinian state which wants the eastern part of Jerusalem as its future capital.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, a former Nobel Peace Prize winner, said earlier this month he made the decision to change the embassy's location to win more friends in the Middle East and comply with UN resolutions.Link...

Obviously they don't remember that all important line from the bible :

"And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."Genesis 12:3

Hit And Run Cowards Surprised At Mighty David's Response

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The magnitude of the Israeli response to Hizbollah's cross-border operation in July took the Lebanese guerrilla group by surprise, Hizbollah deputy leader Naim Qassem said in an interview published on Saturday.

Qassem told an-Nahar daily that Hizbollah had expected an Israel attack at some stage as part of a joint plan with the United States but it had no indication it would come in July.

"We were expecting the Israelis would respond at the most by bombing for a day or two or some limited attacks or targeting certain places, such that it would not go beyond three days and some limited damage," he said.

After Hizbollah fighters seized two Israeli soldiers on July 12, Israel started bombing Lebanon's civilian infrastructure in a one-month war which displaced more than 900,000 people.

Israeli attacks killed close to 1,200 people in Lebanon, mostly civilians, and did damage worth billions of dollars. Israel lost 157 people, mostly soldiers inside Lebanon.

Qassem said: "Frankly we were surprised by the great size (of the Israeli response) and by this serious attack."

Two days after the war began, Hizbollah learnt that Israel and the United States were planning an attack in September or October. U.S. media have also said the United States was enthusiastic about Israeli plans to strike at Hizbollah.

"Israel was not ready. In fact it wanted to prepare for two or three months more, but American pressure on one side and the Israeli desire to achieve a success on the other ... were factors which made them rush into battle," Qassem said.

The Hizbollah official said the guerrilla group would co-ordinate with the Lebanese army as it moves into parts of south Lebanon dominated by Hizbollah.

But Hizbollah will not give up the concept of resistance against Israel, on the grounds that Israel continues to occupy the Shebaa farms region, holds Lebanese prisoners and overflies Lebanese territory almost every day.

"The justifications for ending it (resistance) are not yet there. When we agree on a defence plan to confront Israel, defining the job of the resistance, the army and the Lebanese people, then we will see what the rules and roles are," he said.

The Shebaa Farms is a small patch of land claimed by Lebanon, but occupied by Israel since it captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war. The United Nations deems the territory Syrian until such time as Syria cedes it to Lebanon.

Israel wants the Lebanese army and a strengthened U.N. peace force to disarm Hizbollah and keep it away from the Israeli border, but Qassem said disarmament was an internal Lebanese matter and Hizbollah fighters will stay in their villages.

The army and the United Nations would not go searching for arms but would stop people carrying them in public, Qassem said.Link...

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